Lionel Messi recorded a hat trick and added an assist and Baltasar Rodriguez scored the tie-breaking goal as visiting Inter Miami used a second-half assault to defeat Nashville SC 5-2 in a Decision Day matchup on Saturday night.
Telasco Segovia also scored for Inter Miami (19-7-8, 65 points), who won their third straight game. Miami will be the No. 3 seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs and faces a rematch with No. 6 Nashville in the first round.
Sam Surridge and Jacob Shaffelburg scored goals for Nashville (16-12-6, 54 points), which didn’t allow a shot over the first 34 minutes before being badly exposed in the second half.
Messi finishes the regular season with 29 goals while all but clinching the Golden Boot.
Rocco Rios Novo made five saves for Miami, while Nashville’s Joe Willis had four stops.
Nashville was nursing a 2-1 lead in the second half until Andy Najar was called for a hand ball.
Messi took the ensuing penalty kick in the 63rd minute and easily sent a left-footed shot into the left corner of the net to tie the match.
The goal energized Miami and it moved ahead just four minutes later.
Luis Suarez took a right-footed shot that Willis knocked away. But the ball bounced over toward Rodriguez, who sent a right-footed shot past Willis to give Miami a 3-2 lead.
Messi was at it again in the 81st minute as he booted a left-footed shot into the lower left corner to make it 4-2.
In the first minute of second-half stoppage time, Messi had possession and closed in on Willis before feeding the wide-open Segovia, who kicked the ball into the net to finish off the flurry.
Miami outshot Nashville 17-15 and had a 9-7 edge in shots on target.
Nashville dominated play in the first half but led just 2-1 at halftime.
Miami’s initial shot came on Messi’s goal in the 34th minute. He received the ball from Jordi Alba and had three defenders to maneuver around before sending a left-footed shot into the left corner of the net.
Nashville responded in the 43rd minute when Hany Mukhtar sent a short centering pass to Surridge, who knocked in a header.
Nashville struck again in the sixth minute of first-half stoppage time. Mukhtar took a shot that caromed off the right goalpost and the ball went directly to Shaffelburg, who knocked it home to put Nashville ahead.
(Reuters)
